It's all over .... :(

wow...
Hard to believe this, but I am no longer at the Honor Academy due to medical leave a couple weeks ago, where I got flown home for what I thought was going to be a 3 day visit which turned into a report that I cannot go back.
What are my thoughts? What are my feelings?
Bittersweet.
It does not seem real that I won't be going back... after all, almost EVERYTHING is still down there because I did not know this visit was permanent.
I am home in Minnesota.... I have no regrets, but I miss so very much the friendships that got built down there...
I grew so much... I feel way more knowledgeable of God's Word, and I have an intense passion to witness to people and get more saved for God's Kingdom. I am more hungry for God, my relationship with Him is more real than it has ever been, and I know I am not going to let the devil discourage me.
The way my brother jake put it to me, and the way I see it now is that I can claim double for my trouble! AMEN, that's right. The devil attacked me in an area that I am very passionate about, and I am not going to let him win. I am healed in the name of Jesus, and God is going to continue His work in me despite where I am at.
Sometimes I reflect back about my last 5 months and am amazed at how much God worked and just think to myself how grateful I am that I had this oppotunity in my life to be stretched even more and just grow in God's presence unhindered.

I do not take it lightly everything that i had been blessed with, and instead am going to bring the passion for the Lord with me to Minnesota! :)

I'm out....
whether to continue this blog, I am not sure yet...

Portland and Tacoma Baby!

us at the train station to go up to Washington together

Train stop in Seattle...only about 1 hour more on the train
running to catch the ferry right after the train ride in WA
us on the windy ferry :)

the tip of the ferry







this is us stopping at a truck stop for dinner :) praise the Lord, a little shop across the street had a market and I picked up some pea pods ;) and other vegetables for the trip. About 10 hours into the trip, 40ish more to go!

this is interns trying to get some exercise in before getting back on the bus :)

this was a pretty view in Utah of the mountains :)

this was where our Portland event was held .... downtown Portland. wow, I did not know Oregon was such a pretty state, but let me tell you it is :)

this is Lindsay Meggers :) she is a really nice girl and also my roomate back at the HA and we got to stay in Portland together with her sister while the rest of the group went up to Washington by bus. We then took a train and a ferry to get to Washington. fun experiences....

Soooo...



obviously I have not updated this for about a month now, but I plan to not let that happen again.



So many things have been going on...



for instance the last week and a half I have been traveling on the road by a bus to go to the Acquire the Fire events I called for. Last week we had an event in Portland, and this week we have one in Tacoma WA. Yesterday we arrived in Tacoma and set up the Tacoma Dome all day for it to be ready for tonight's big event!!! So exciting to see all that God is going to do :)



I got the priveledge of staying in Portland for a little while and stayed with my friend Lindsay's sister... here are a few pictures from the trip as a whole :)


alright... so also during this one month gap, i ran a 10K marathon in Tyler Texas, got back from Arkansas, had an Unreached People Group LTE and a fasting LTE where we could not talk or eat or use any form of communication for 4 days! :)

I am leaving for the Tacoma dome within the next half hour and hopefully can update some tonight!! :) Today is going to be a great day! :)

Ridin' Wit My Top Down

So, while I was chillin' in ARkansas, Nicole and Jeff decided to make us Tomato Basil soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches (yum-o!).

Since they needed a few things at the store, we were able to also kick out a music video on the same trip.

Good times! Liz, this one goes out to you...

I'm in Arkansas - I'm a Hooligan

So I'm in Arkansas and we did the 'Arkansan' thing:

Crammed myself plus four innocent children into the backseat of the car. And played hopscotch while singing Whistling Dixie at the same time.

My Missions Trip this summer

K this is going to be another one of those long posts... lol so much goes on, but I cannot seem to update it everyday. If you are interested in where God has called me to go this summer, read on...

I have always felt like I was one to stay in the states and be the person sending people on missions trips. God confirmed this with me about 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday night service down here during and after the message on doing our role in being a Christian. Everyone has a part to play, -- there are "senders", "goers", "intercessors", "mobilizers", and "greeters". David Hasz went into detail of each of the details and how we are all called to one of these and we need to ask God what are part is to play in the great commission... I know I am called to be a sender and I know I will be going too... but man things are unfolding in my heart that I never knew was there.

Before this service I kept thinking this summer I would be going to a really cool place far away like Australia or New Zealand since I would only get an opportunity like this one time in my life. As I kept trying to pursue one of these countries I just did not feel peace with them.

I was praying for direction and kept feeling like New York was the place God wanted me to go. I kept thinking to myself, no way I am not going to stay in the U.S. where the gospel is preached so freely... but man oh man that thinking is a bit selfish. After much thought, contemplation, and praying I went to go fill out my application (they were due really soon for this summer) and God then showed me to do both New York and Jamaica this summer since they were both 2 week long trips and we are allowed 4 weeks for Mission Trips here in the summer. This is not a very common thing to do here, but I felt total peace with it. The total cost of these 2 trips cost just under the price of going to Australia and New Zealand too! (about $3,800) Man, after I submitted my application for these trips I felt so much peace and excitement but was not sure they would both get approved because of space and the uncommoness of it all. I just figured God would work it out and I did not think about it again.

Until...
Yesterday we had an awesome chapel speaker that was really hardcore and made us all feel like selfish naive Americans (which in essence, we are sadly), but this guy devotes his entire life ministering from the ghettos of America to the garbage dumps of Manila to the sexual slave trade in Thailand. He lives in the ghetto of New York and has been beaten, stabbed and shot in the face. He has tasted death and experienced it and he really opened my eyes just to how sheltered I am, and how so many people need love and get looked past. It was during this chapel God spoke to me about New York again and I knew I was supposed to go to New York. I need to share God's love with the hopeless children in Brooklyn’s projects. I need to love the children and teens that call abandoned buildings their home, face a future of drugs, addictions, prison, abandonment, and even death. I will be joining the guy that spoke in chapel and live where he currently lives... everyday. Wow.

Today, I got the email that I am accepted to both of these trips!!! Man, God is good... He confirmed it so many times and now I am going to go, and I know He is going to provide!!! Ahhh I never thought I could be this excited for a missions trip!

6 girls + 1 mouse = this.

6 So out of all 6 of us girls, we only have one brave girl that is willing to risk standing on the floor while a mouse runs around and hides in our room. All of us other girls were standing on our bunk beds or ladders.... Oh and for the record, we still have not found this bad boy. Ishy. P.S. You may not want to have the volume all the way up... Options View Video Reply to Sender Reply to All Forward Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to http://www.sprint.com/picturemail

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Praise God!!!

Woo hoo! Praise God... I have a fun story about God being so good...

The other day I was at work down here doing my normal youth pastor calling when I dialed this number to a girl that had no affiliation with Acquire the Fire, being a youth pastor, or anything like that. She was just a regular 19 year old girl, and after I called and did my 15 sec. intro she sounded angry and hung up on me (this is normal in the calling world, so I just brushed it off and went on to the next number) or so I thought.... I thought I dialed a new number, but whaddya know? 2 seconds into saying my intro to the next call I realized in my head that it was the same girl and I did not get to dial a new number... I quickly apologized and asked if this was the same girl from just a few seconds ago... she said it was, and I quickly was like "wait! don't hang up!" and I started talking about God and just how I felt like this was a God ordained call... she really started to open up and God totally used me to pour into her life! I found out that she was 19, is about 3 months pregnant, and the guy left her, she felt like giving up on life and was also a lesbian. God totally gave me the words to say to her and pray with her, and she was totally open to receive and totally changed around to a positive attitude. I got the chance to be able to give her 2 free tickets to the Detroit ATF event and she is going to bring a friend! (Talk about a turn around!) Man, God is sooo goood! By the time we ended the call, we exchanged emails, I prayed with her, blessed her w/ 2 tickets to a life changing youth conference, and her heart was open more to God. :) I can not tell you how it brightened up my day, but it did! That is what the Ministry placements we are in are all about... just reaching out to others and sharing God's love. It was just really cool to experience first hand this time. :)

My point? ya never know who you are going to talk to or who God places in your life. Always be ready, always be open, and always be willing. God will do the rest ;)

My favorite weekend here...

So i just heard the quote here the other day that "if you dont like the weather in Texas, just wait a day... " Wow, that is the truth. Texas weather is bi polar... Meaning one day it is hot and sunny and the next it is freezing and raining and dropped like thirty degrees... Seriously. Well i am grateful cuz this last weekend was the best yet, cuz the quad (4 fun girls) went out to the mall in her mustang convertible and def enjoyed the sun with the top down. Talk about refreshing. Man, nothing beats sunshine, bumpin beats Ha, and friends all in the same setting:) Options View Video Reply to Sender Reply to All Forward

Lions, Scorpions, and Bears OH MY!!! a.k.a. the Mountain Climb...

So two weekends (wow, time flies) ago, we drove 12 hours to go and climb the mountain range Big Bend, and in that range, I climbed all the way to the highest peak (Emery's peak) with other interns that were up for the climb. Let me recap the trip in a short version through some pictures :) First we drove 12ish hours to our camping spot in the middle of the desert and nowhere (seriously). Here is the view of where we stayed in tents:

This was from the bottom of the hill in the distance---->

The two pictures are from the bottom of the hill where we camped, one picture is from the top view of the hill, and the pile of scat/feces/#2 is also on top of the hill... I took a picture cuz these piles were everywhere up there and I kept wondering what kind of animal does these huge piles---I put my shoe next to it so you could see how big it is (and this was a medium sized pile) Lion? Goat? Elephant?--no. Bear? you tell me.

Mountain CLimb Pictures

Here are more mountain pictures, cuz I could not figure out how to post alot of pictures in an orderly manner and describe them each. So Here is a summary of them all, and you can just kinda guess what is happening. All I can say is the views were INCREDIBLE and camera's can never capture the real prettiness :) Just to give you an idea tho...

Our Core Advisor was not able to come with us on this trip, so for most of the mountain it was just us 5 girls hiking alone. There was one time in the early morning that we heard a huge animal in the tall grass around us (we thought it was a mountain lion cuz we just saw 2 signs for them) but luckily it was just some deer, but they were about 4 feet away! scary, cuz it was pitch black at around 5:30a.m.

We hiked a total of about 17 miles that day, but it was on rocky terrain... we were exhausted by the end...

Praise God, God gave us girls the perseverance to keep going and going and going... seriously. It felt never ending.

I am glad I did it, it was a cool experience... especially sleeping in the freezing desert at night knowing there were scorpions, and lions and bears ...